Arrangement View Help

unbreakable · Post by **unbreakable** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 9:59 am

Hi there,

I'm a total Live noob - I know my way around audio software, having used ProTools and various other programs quite a bit and I know Reason absolutely inside out. I'm loving my experiences with Live so far (I went out and bought it after playing with the Lite version for only a couple of days

), its really quick and easy for me to get sounds going that I like (I'm loving the Operator), but one major problem is I just can't get my head around how to use Live to structure a track.

I understand that theres this Arrangement view and you can record your structure in realtime by essentially "performing" it in session view and triggering all the clips & scenes etc - but what if you don't want to do that? Is it possible to use Live to structure a track and piece it together over time the same way as a typical DAW operates? Or is it possible to at least approximate this way of operating? Would you use arrangement view or session view (with follow actions maybe)? I just can't figure it out, eg, most of the time when I press record I wipe out whatever I've arranged, and then also sometimes I don't and I just end up recording a new clip. I've read through the built-in help and lessons and the manual and also several tutorials online I could find but I'm still just not getting it...

Any help here would be MUCH appreciated!

- Anthony.

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:29 pm

using the arrangement view by itself is very similar to what you're used to with a traditional DAW.

the behavior which is probably confusing you, based on what you wrote, is that if you are playing any clips in session view, they will be recorded to their corresponding arrangement track when the global record mode is used (the one in the transport up top) - _even if that track is not record-enabled_

if you have something on an arrangement track which you don't want copied over, then make sure there is no clip activity on that track in session view.

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:03 pm

You do know that you can drag clips from Session view over to Arrangement view, right?

Drag them over the arrangement view icon in the upper right corner. Place them on a track and then "unroll" them to cover as many bars as you want.

The way I work is that I prepare clips in Session view, jam with them, improvise. But if I want to create something persistent, I drag the clips to Arrangement view and start working in traditional DAW-mode. Copy/past, cutting them, finetuning them, automating track parameters etc.

unbreakable · Post by **unbreakable** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:24 am

Thanks heaps for these tips both of you, I'm making some progress now. I didn't realise that I didn't actually need to press the "global record" button when recording a clip, just arm the track and click play on an empty clip space. That was throwing me somewhat...

However...

I tried to do as you suggested Michael but nothing that I copy into the arrangement view will play. ?

What I did was open a blank session, drag a kick onto a midi channel, arm that channel, record a clip of four to the floor (half a bars worth), change its loop and start end markers to make it half a bar long (which meant block selecting and moving my kicks to beat one, to compensate for me letting the metronome count me in). Then once I'd got the clip how I wanted, I dragged it to arrangement and copied it a few times (option-drag). If I hit play at this point, it would play, but it would keep playing past where I'd copied it... so I realised I had to press the "stop clip" button in session view, but then it wouldn't play at all when hitting global play, even though its sitting in arrangement view several times and the playhead is in the right place.

Why won't it play? I tried making other clips but nothing will play in arrangement view.

I double clicked the cilps from in arrangement view and the midi information is definitely in there, and its on the right channel... whats going on?

djshiva · Post by **djshiva** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:53 am

unbreakable wrote:Thanks heaps for these tips both of you, I'm making some progress now. I didn't realise that I didn't actually need to press the "global record" button when recording a clip, just arm the track and click play on an empty clip space. That was throwing me somewhat...

However...

I tried to do as you suggested Michael but nothing that I copy into the arrangement view will play. ?

What I did was open a blank session, drag a kick onto a midi channel, arm that channel, record a clip of four to the floor (half a bars worth), change its loop and start end markers to make it half a bar long (which meant block selecting and moving my kicks to beat one, to compensate for me letting the metronome count me in). Then once I'd got the clip how I wanted, I dragged it to arrangement and copied it a few times (option-drag). If I hit play at this point, it would play, but it would keep playing past where I'd copied it... so I realised I had to press the "stop clip" button in session view, but then it wouldn't play at all when hitting global play, even though its sitting in arrangement view several times and the playhead is in the right place.

Why won't it play? I tried making other clips but nothing will play in arrangement view.

I double clicked the cilps from in arrangement view and the midi information is definitely in there, and its on the right channel... whats going on?

click on the "back to arrangement" box in the middle bar wth all the start and stop stuff. it will be red if it is still playing your clip in session view. anytime u do anything in session and then take it to arrangement, you wanna tell live that you want it to play what is actually only in arrangement.

what's happening to you is that it is still just looping your clip in session view. that drove me nuts til i figured it out.

unbreakable · Post by **unbreakable** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:10 am

Ahh!! Thank you!!! *bows humbly*

This revelation begs the question - is there any way to just switch this functionality on and off? In the preferences somewhere maybe? I had a look but nothing jumped out at me.

Seems unnecessarily troublesome to have to go switching that red button off all the time.

djshiva · Post by **djshiva** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:16 am

nah. it's really not that bad once u get used to it. it means you can arrange stuff and then go test a clip in session view, see how ya like it playing along with the arrangement, drag it over and then hit "back to arrangement". i sorta like the ability to do that myself.

unbreakable · Post by **unbreakable** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:49 am

Yes that makes sense when i think about it... I just tried it too, and it still made sense

Cool, well I'm gonna try and make a track in Live now! Yippee! Before I've only managed short loops which I exported and used in Reason.

Thanks again!

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 9:55 am

You don't even need to do Alt-drag. Just drag the right end of the clip and it will "unroll" over as many bars as you like.

You can also cut up, rearrange and glue clips together in Arrangement.

Have a look into automating track parameters too. It is pretty important (for me at least) when doing linear arrangements.